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When they let go of her, she pushed away from them, looking to the imperator for an explanation, breath coming through her teeth.

He tilted his head to the side, just far enough to show her the pale numbers glowing on the skin below his left ear. It was a clock.

“What is that?” she gritted out.

Calanthe said, “We call them Life Clocks.”

“This is necessary, Loren,” Quinton said. “These clocks are our only means of survival in a place of death. This will keep us alive while we look for the Well.”

Her hand went to the numbers on her own neck. The area tingled and pulsed just like a heart, every thump marking the seconds that ticked by. “And what happens when the clocks run out?”

“We die,” he said matter-of-factly. A cold smile ghosted across his mouth, and there was a sickening glint in his eyes that told her he was getting more satisfaction out of this than any person should. “No reason to fret. We’ll be back through the Veil before that can happen.”

There were more syringes in a silver briefcase on the table that was pressed up against the wall, all filled with teal liquid.

“Are you bringing spares?” she asked.

It was Calanthe who answered. “They don’t last in Spirit. If we tried to take them with us, they would become useless and drained of their magic the moment they passed through this curtain.”

“Great.”

Quinton gestured again to the shimmering entrance. Seeing the reluctance on her face, he said, “The faster you find the Well for me, the sooner you can return to your trouble-free life. It’s all I ask, Loren.”

The faster she found the Well, the sooner she could use it to awaken her own magic to its fullest potential and smash these people into smithereens.

A plan was taking root in her mind. One that involved the extra syringes in the briefcase. She only hoped her plan would work.

With the imperator at her left and Klay at her right, a dozen armed men and women at their backs, she stepped through the scintillating barrier and into Spirit Terra.

—

The world on the other side of the Divide that separated the land of the living from the dead was as fascinating as it was horrific.

The ground was deep violet. It was dry, nearly every inch of it covered in spiny vegetation and old bones. It shifted under Loren’s feet with every step, the whisper of strange soil rippling across flat land that stretched on as far as the eye could see. The sky was as purple as the ground, and there was a mass of black clouds in the distance, churning with the threat of an otherworldly storm.

Being inside the realm of the dead made her feel stretched thin and hollow. She imagined this was how spirits felt as they drifted through the afterlife, with no purpose or sense of direction. The air here was searingly dry and frigid. Gusts of it scraped down her throat like tiny knives with every inhalation.

Quinton stepped up to her side. “How do you feel?” There was a subtle metallic echo to his voice.

Her throat bobbed with a swallow. “Out of place,” she admitted.

Out of place in more ways than one, if she factored in the people standing around her, all of them watching her with the kind of attention a vulture might have while circling a corpse. Every time she looked at Calanthe, the vampire smiled, elongated canines glinting.

Quinton pressed, “And what of your magic?”

Her hand drifted toward her chest, where it hovered above the solar amulet resting beneath her bodysuit. It hung against her skin like a chunk of ice, emitting no indication as to where she might find the Well.

“I haven’t felt anything yet,” she said.

He glanced about the group. “We’ll start walking. See if she feels anything.” Those cold eyes settled on her again. “Treat it like a compass, Miss Calla. See if it speaks to you.”

How about I treat it like a knife and shove it up your ass?

But she started walking, the imperator’s men surrounding her. Peering into the distance told her nothing; the land looked the same everywhere. There were soft hills rolling in the east, and what looked like a crumbling structure to the west. But aside from that, nothing really stood out.

This might be a lot harder than any of them were banking on, including the imperator.

“How far does it go?” she asked.